Plastic Wrap for Charity Karma Nirvana Was Inspired by a 2004 Murder

Through New Year's, we'll be counting down the best work of the year in TV/Film/Branded Content, Print/Outdoor/Design and Interactive/Integrated (IX) as our picks of the day.

This idea at #4 in Print/OOH/Design from Leo Burnett Change showed that even the most brilliant ideas can take the simplest forms. The shocking ad promoting awareness of violence against women from charity Karma Nirvana was a cover wrap on the January edition of Cosmopolitan U.K. It featured the horrific image of a woman suffocating, the idea intensified and made all the more real by the plastic covering that typically sheaths monthly magazines.

Original Story:

The U.K. edition of Cosmopolitan this month carries a cover wrap featuring an image of a woman being suffocated, to highlight the incidence of so-called "honor killings" (when women are killed by their families in the name of honor). The shocking picture is made even more impactful by the plastic that often envelops monthly mags.

The design, for charity Karma Nirvana, was inspired by the murder of Shafilea Ahmed, a 17-year-old British-Pakistani woman who was suffocated and killed by her parents in front of her siblings in 2004. Created by Leo Burnett Change, it will run on limited editions of the February issue of Cosmo to help raise awareness and will also be distributed at a lobbying event at the Houses of Parliament that is debating violence against women this week. A social campaign will include this short online film, showing the plastic wrapping being ripped off.